Courscant's sun had long since set over the Laboratory Sector, but the area's intense nightlife kept the nearby buildings well lit at night. Tzymo Labs took up more than one square block, and two of its reaching towers were connected with hundreds of skybridges that formed a tangled web of walkways. Up and down each side of the towers were some minimal landing platforms jutting out toward the walkways, but the gap between them was sizable, preventing serious accidents. No airspeeder or shuttle could navigate through the bridges, only around, and though the buildings themselves were very nearly full with Tzymo's scientists and workers, the walkways were more for show than anything, making the complex look larger than it actually was, and rarely carried much pedestrian traffic.
Horatio stood alone on the top bridge, looking out into the Coruscant nightscape while trying to clear his head. The air was brisk, but his light jacket kept him comfortable enough while he thought. Another hour, though, and he knew he'd have to go back inside. Nights on the city-planet were unforgiving, and he didn't think he could be out of reach for too long without Tzymo taking notice, anyway.
A swift breeze filtered through the interwoven walkways below him, making a faint howling noise that for some reason made him nervous. He knew it wasn't Prophet, but it still unnerved him. He hardly even knew the creature, but he had seen enough to know he wanted as little contact with her as possible. One of Tzymo's custom creations, he knew she had to be volatile somehow, and not knowing what would set her off into a dangerous rage was far more stress than he wanted to handle, especially with all that had been happening recently.
No matter how hard he tried to think of something else, his thoughts easily returned to Mand, seeing her strapped to that table because of him, yet treating him as her partner, the way they had been more than ten years ago. The contrast saddened him, though he couldn't admit to himself why. He knew he'd never work with her again, and he honestly thought she would have fought him more, maybe even killed him when he approached her in that alley the day before. Prophet, however, had spared him the harm.
And what was he to say to her? That he was sorry for the pain and trouble he had caused her and her friends recently? That it wasn't his fault he had to do the things he had done? She'd laugh at him, he was sure, even though he had shown his regret more than once. She blamed him for nearly killing Koril, but he had in fact saved him by administering half of the antidote Tzymo had commissioned him to retrieve. He just hadn't figured out a way to tell her yet, and convincing her that he was in fact telling her the truth would be even harder.
Disrupting his thoughts, a small, gray shuttle approached slowly and low over the nearby buildings. As it got closer, he recognized the green Tzymo Labs logo on the side. His interest lost, he turned away, only to be interrupted by his beeping comlink in his pocket.
"Sheridan," he answered it cautiously, but he was relieved to hear Zanti's voice on the other end.
"Flying over you right now," she said as he watched the shuttle roar overhead. "You get stuck with guard duty again?"
"Very funny," Horatio bit back in a low voice. "Where have you been?"
The ship landed and disappeared inside a hangar just beside the towering spires but kilometers below him on the complex's lower levels. "Tzymo sent Prophet and me to do some cleanup, make sure we didn't leave anything traceable behind. More specifically, to check for anything you left behind on purpose for your friends."
"They're not my friends," he said darkly.
"Still, Tzymo wanted to be sure. Can't blame him, though, with your track record."
Horatio sighed angrily. "Thanks for the confidence."
"You're welcome."
Frustrated, Horatio began to pocket his comlink, but Zanti continued. "I hope you don't mind, but I think Prophet may have added another victim to her résumé."
"What? How?"
"We went back to that alley, and Elena and her two...guards, consorts, whatever, were already there. Prophet knew it before I did, of course, so by the time I figured out what had happened, I think one of them had already died."
Horatio blinked. "Are you sure?"
"See! You do care!"
"Yeah, I care! I care that they may have had the chance to follow you!"
"Relax, Horatio," Zanti countered once more, but she only flustered him more. "They were too busy tending to their buddy to see us. Plus, it was too dark and there was too much haze around to see anything, anyway. We're fine."
I hope so, he thought, for your sake.
"Are you going to come inside? You'll catch Lungrot or the Dantari Flu if you stay out any longer."
As he switched off his comlink and stuffed it back in his pocket, he glanced down at the hangar where he saw Zanti's silhouette standing at its opening, looking up at him. He watched her for a brief moment before he began the long, cold walk back into Tzymo Labs, thankful to finally have something else, however worrying it was, occupying his thoughts.
Once he got back inside the compound, Horatio hesitantly decided to first check on Mand. Tzymo had probably resumed his "interrogation" of sorts, and feeling guilty for his part in it, Horatio at least wanted to be on hand. If her mind really had splintered as badly as it seemed, he might be able to help calm her.
Or, he thought briefly, he'd make it worse.
Still, on his way back to her room, he walked past the surveillance station to look inside the room before he went in, but seeing no one on either of the screens, he stopped. No one was sitting at the console, either, and alarmed, he hunched over the controls and replayed the recording.
He saw her being brought in hours ago, still unconscious with bloody bandages around her stomach. Tzymo immediately descended on her, filling her veins with his potent memory enhancers before she had even been secured to the table. He sped up the playback to the point where she blacked out after the first round of questioning and where he first appeared with Tzymo in the room. That conversation still made him shudder, recalling Tzymo's ruthless logic, and after the doctor left, Horatio had stepped back, almost out of the cameras' view.
The next few minutes of watching were uneventful...until he saw something move he hadn't noticed before. A small container floated from Tzymo's equipment shelf, completely bypassing Horatio's attention the first time while he had been so earnestly focused on Mand. The container hovered briefly, then affixed itself to one of the two cameras. Its screen went black though it was still recording, and Horatio continued to watch both, unsure of what was going on.
The other camera was recording from behind him as he stepped up to Mand's side. After a few moments, realization of what was about to happen set in and was beginning to make him feel sick to his stomach.
The camera saw him reach for her hand, but it couldn't see around him or see that he was just holding her hand, nothing more. As soon as he left, Mand, suddenly coherent, somehow wrenched her hand free from the restraints, as though he had loosened them for her just moments before. She made quick work of the others at her waist, ankles, and opposite hand, and before he could see where she went, she looked up at the one camera still recording, a faint regretful look on her face, and with the Force, she lifted another container up to its lens, blackening both for a few brief seconds. Once the containers fell, the room was empty, leaving no trace of her and leaving him no way of knowing which way she went.
She had played him the whole time.
Angry but fighting a sense of panic, he grabbed a blaster from a nearby storage locker and took off in search of her, desperate to bring her back before Tzymo had a chance to see the incriminating recordings.
Escape from Tzymo's compound seemed easy enough. As long as Mand was able to avoid any of Tzymo's mindless henchmen or his neurotic scientists, she could make a clean escape. Unfortunately, she also had to dodge surveillance cameras, and those were harder to sense and anticipate in the Force. She had been lucky so far, able to use large, oblivious guards as cover through most of the hallways, but she knew it would only be a matter of time before she was seen by someone, mechanical or not.
Her use of Horatio, intentionally taking advantage of him to make her getaway weighed heavily on her mind. He had easily taken her bait, and she deliberately fed off his anguish from one of his most painful memories. Elena had told her months ago of how Jaala's death had shaken him, and though she wasn't completely aware of just how much until she saw the look on his face, she had to take the chance. She knew she had stooped to his level by framing him for her escape, but he would have done the same in her position.
...wouldn't he?
Still feeling the effects of Tzymo's drugs and briefly distracted by her thoughts of Horatio, Mand stumbled, getting the attention of a Gran guard ahead. Though frozen in place for a split second, vainly hoping he hadn't noticed, she had to dive into a nearby hallway to avoid his blaster fire. The sound of the bolts quickly echoed down the halls, earning the attention of everyone within earshot. More and more guards filled the corridors, forcing Mand to make a quicker exit than she had planned. Close enough to the building's outer edges and seeing a complex series of walkways well-lit just outside a window down the hall from her, she made a quick dash for the adjoining curving hall, following it as far as she could while keeping one stride ahead of the blaster bolts trailing her.
As she rounded the way to a straight portion of the corridor, she met another handful of guards who skidded to a stop in front of her. She could see one reaching for a stun weapon at his side, and hearing the others catching up behind her, she had to act quickly.
Taking in a deep breath to draw on the power of the Force, she spun in a blur and crouched to the floor as bolts crossed over her head, taking out a few in the front lines. Before the guards could adjust their aim, she let go of a deep cry as she stood and pushed her arms outward to both groups, releasing her powerful Shockwave that blasted the guards back dozens of meters away from her and bowed the hall's structural supports. The window in front of her shattered from the sheer force of the blow, spraying transparisteel all over the walkway just outside.
Though thrown off balance by the exertion but having distracted her pursuers, Mand climbed through the open frame to the outside durasteel platform. Spotting a small shuttle atop a landing pad attached to the adjacent tower, she again drew on the Force to propel her up through the darkness, leaping from walkway to walkway as though together they formed a jagged staircase to the top of the towers.
Horatio's instincts had served him well while trying to track Mand, leading him to find the least monitored and populated areas and follow the path he would have taken himself if he had wanted to escape. It wasn't long before he heard a flurry of blaster fire echoing down the hall, and sure that Mand was at the center of it, he picked up a faster pace, nearly running as he made his way down the rounded hall.
Just as he met a mass of Tzymo's guards, a sudden explosion knocked him onto his back, though he strangely didn't feel any heat from the blast. Scrambling to his feet in alarm, he angrily searched for the idiot who had thrown a detonator in such a dense crowd, but when he noticed no burn marks or any visible injuries among the guards from it, he paused, perplexed. If it hadn't been an explosion...
Looking out the broken window, he spotted movement outside, but it was gone before he could identify it. Stepping around the guards still unconscious and sprawled on the floor, he drew his blaster, approaching the open window carefully. A strong wind whined through the bent durasteel frames, masking any further noise coming from behind him, but intently focused on the outside, he finally saw her, jumping from ledge to ledge up the walkways between the towers with seemingly impossible power. Knowing he'd never be able to catch up with her that way, he holstered his blaster and took off down the hall, getting to a turbolift quickly.
The ride up the dozens of levels to the top made him even more tense and nervous, but as soon as the lift doors opened, he sprinted out, racing to the walkway in the night's bitter cold. On the other side of the durasteel gorge, a shuttle sat on one of the numerous landing platforms nearby, and he watched it briefly, unsure if he had been fast enough to beat her to the top. When it remained silent, he leaned over the railing, looking down at the mess of walkways that extended hundreds of meters below him. He didn't see any movement anywhere. Had he missed her? Had she gone another way? She couldn't have been that fast! There were far too many levels, and she had to know that guards would be pouring onto the bridges anytime soon...
Frustrated, he pounded his fist on the rail, but as he continued to watch for her, he heard the door to the building he had just left slide back open. Expecting Mand, he turned to the door quickly, drawing his blaster at the same time. He saw Zanti standing in the doorway instead, sporting a dark expression for some reason, but afraid he'd miss his chance to chase Mand, he lowered his weapon and looked back over the rail.
"You helped her escape," Zanti charged furiously, "again!!"
Stunned, Horatio turned back to her, raising his hands in defense as he stepped toward her slowly and kept his voice low. "No, Zanti, you don't understand--"
But she continued, enraged. "After what Tzymo said to you! After you got me caught up in this!!"
"Zanti!" he answered more forcefully but still quietly, emphasizing each word. "She set me up! I followed her out here, and I am trying to fix this!"
Zanti shook her head, her eyes hard. "No. You're not going to take me down with you this time. Once was enough."
Though he had begun to protest again, a strangely familiar spike flew out of the darkness and embedded deeply into his chest just under his collarbone. The force of the impact knocked him back, making him stagger on the walkway to regain his balance. In shock and agonizing pain, he gripped the rail as he fell to his knees breathless, and just as he looked up, he saw Prophet leap down to the ledge beside Zanti, growling angrily and thrashing her dangerous tail that was missing one lone spike.
Hanging from a walkway hardly three levels below the top, Mand heard everything going on above her. She barely breathed, listening intently as she wrapped the night's darkness tightly around herself. With Prophet's arrival, she knew she only had a short amount of time before the Force-sensitive beast would find her, but the attack on Horatio had somehow frozen her in place. She wouldn't have wished Prophet's punishment on anyone, not even him...
"Pr--Prophet, I'm going to f-find her," Horatio choked out defensively, but Prophet's only response was a fierce roar before a loud thud echoed between the buildings. Horatio cried out in pain, leading Mand to envision the terrible beast landing atop him a bridge above her. He continued to choke and gasp for breath, but he formed no intelligible words, prompting another growl from Prophet.
"You still love her," Zanti accused of him, but he responded with another painful yell as Mand heard another thud that sounded like someone being thrown against a wall. A third thump echoed down to her from somewhere else, but she had heard enough.
As quietly as she could, Mand released her feet around a pipe she had clung to, and swinging down to hang above the bridge below her, she released her grip over her head, softening her landing as best she could. With a careful, calculated jump, she gracefully dove off the walkway and tucked herself into a rolling landing onto a platform far below. Taking in a deep breath to calm her nerves, she stood and looked back up at the top bridge, yelling across the distance.
"Prophet!! Down here!!"
It only took the beast a half second to spot her over the railing, and only a second more for her to devise a plan of attack. Knowing how incredibly fast Prophet was, Mand tried to buy herself some time, jumping down to another bridge, then another, zigzagging down through the maze.
Though Mand had a decent head start, Prophet was beginning to catch up to her before she had even reached the lower walkways. She needed a way to dispose of the beast, but with limited resources on her hands and with the bridges beginning to fill with Tzymo's guards on the lower levels, she was running out of options. She tumbled onto the floor of one bridge and jumped to her feet, looking up at Prophet who landed and roared just meters above her. Breathing heavily but confident she could still outmaneuver Prophet, she tensed as she stared her down, waiting for her to move first...
As Prophet leaped down to her, Mand determinedly twisted herself away as she jumped, deftly avoiding Prophet's swinging claw. She sailed briefly and landed with one foot precariously on the rail below, but pulling even more on the Force, she reversed her momentum into another jump, taking Prophet back up the walkway web.
But Prophet easily anticipated her moves, forcing Mand to constantly alter her trajectory. She backtracked, took large sweeping jumps, but just as she remembered from before, Prophet was relentless. Mand even tried Force Projecting an image of herself going a different direction, but unshakable, Prophet always followed her. Even in the cold night air, Mand was sweating profusely, exerting herself significantly, and knowing she was going to run out of energy soon, she had to do something...
Feeling Prophet mere centimeters behind her, Mand gripped the rail of a bridge she had intended to miss, swinging herself under it and back up over it to land her boots hard into Prophet's side, sending the beast even further with a faint whine. Off balance and surprised, Prophet was only barely able to land atop a nearby platform, scraping her paws vainly at the ledge to slow herself and keep from sliding off the other side. Taking advantage of the chance to escape, Mand powered through a high jump, catapulting herself off rail after rail, determined to reach the upper walkways...
Catching her off guard, Prophet roared again as she torturously dug her claws into Mand's back in midair, completely halting and reversing Mand's momentum. As they both began to fall, Prophet gave her a powerful kick, sending Mand hard against another platform near the top of the web. She tumbled without control, sliding painfully along the rough durasteel, and only just able to, she gripped the lip of the ledge with one hand as she fell off the side, dangling perilously kilometers over the city-planet below her.
Prophet easily landed on a nearby bridge, leveling a deep, calculating growl at her as she slowly approached. Panicked, Mand tried to grab the ledge with her other hand, but her grip was beginning to loosen, her fingers sliding off the cold metal...
Out of nowhere, a bloody hand gripped hers tightly and began to pull her up, and finally able to hold on with her other hand, she quickly climbed back up onto the platform...beside Horatio, who sat back from her, his left arm hanging limply at his side as he struggled to breathe. Looking him over rapidly, she saw the hole in his left shoulder, but he leveled a dark look at her briefly before he returned his attention to Prophet behind them and stood painfully.
As the beast approached, Mand stood, too, inexplicably positioning herself in front of Horatio, though he was the one with a weapon. With her piercing onyx gaze locked firmly on Mand, Prophet snorted as if to challenge her, daring her to move and begin another pursuit and battle of strength. Mand could tell Prophet enjoyed the chase, and denying her the satisfaction, she began to build up power in the Force, staring the beast down for a final confrontation.